Schedule Notes (and UCLA "buys a bye")

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

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A few thoughts after looking through the football schedules as released by the Mountain West Conference and its schools yesterday...

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Three MWC teams have more national TV games scheduled than does BYU. Air Force is slated for 7 national appearances (3 on CBSC, 3 on Vs. and one on ESPNU/ESPN Classic), TCU has 6 national dates (3 on CBSC and 3 on Vs.), while New Mexico has four coast-to-coast contests (2 on CBSC and 2 on Vs.).

It's important to note that with the mtn.'s clearance on DirecTV, games on that network will be available on a national basis for the first time. So, while not listed as "national TV" appearances, games on the mtn. should be considered nationally available, which is the news so many BYU fans (and DirecTV subscribers) had been waiting to hear.

National TV appearances (non-mtn.) for the rest of the league are as follows:

BYU: 3 (two on Vs. and one on CBSC)

Utah: 3 (two on Vs. and one on CBSC)

UNLV: 2 (both on CBSC)

SDSU: 2 (one on NBC and one on CBSC)

Wyoming: 1 (CBSC)

CSU: 1 (CBSC)

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Only BYU and New Mexico are scheduled to have every one of their games televised in some fashion. CSU, Wyoming, UNLV and SDSU have two games that will not be televised--every other team has one such game on the schedule.

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Surprising that the BYU-Utah game would not be slated for either CBSC or Vs. Also, the 4:00pm kickoff time will create a radio broadcast conflict between football postgame coverage and game coverage of BYU's likely Saturday night basketball game that night.

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BYU will leave the state of Utah only once between August 30th and October 16th.

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Four of BYU's last 6 games are on the road (all conference games). BYU has not lost a conference road game since October 1st, 2005 (at San Diego State).

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UCLA has given itself more time to prepare for its Las Vegas Bowl rematch with BYU. Originally scheduled to open the season on August 30th home to Fresno State, the Bruins have moved that game back to September 27th, opting to move its September 6th game with Tennessee up to Labor Day (September 1st), on ESPN. That means the Bruins will now have a bye week before the BYU game, while BYU will travel to Washington on September 6th ahead of its game with the Bruins.

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